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‘Alien Nation’ Movie Remake Of 80s Sci-Fi TV Show To Be Directed by Jeff Nichols, ‘Ironman’ Writers To Scribe — Michael Shannon To Play Alien Or Human Cop?

By Tony Smejek
Published on: 07:25 PST, Sep 9, 2016

An Alien Nation movie, derived from the 80s TV series, is making a comeback in the form of a remake on the big screen. It will be written and directed by Jeff Nichols for Fox, according to Deadline Hollywood. He also helmed the movie Loving in which the premise entailed an interracial couple being sentenced to prison for marrying in the state of Virginia back in 1958.

So it sounds like Nichols’ experience in Loving could transfer on over to the Alien Nation movie remake.

In 2014, it was first announced via The Tracking Board that this movie will be a “solid reboot from the ground-up” with Earthless’ Mark Roybal and the Clue reboot’s Ryan Jones as executive producers.

Ironman writers Art Marcum and Matt Holloway are set to scribe the movie, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The Alien Nation Classic Revisited

The original 1988 movie starred James Caan as Detective Sykes who played a racist cop who is forced to partner up with an alien, Detective Francisco, played by Mandy Patinkin. His alien partner was from another world where he was enslaved with 300,000 other aliens that crash landed on Earth. From then on they had to assimilate into the rest of society in Los Angeles. The movie was helmed by Graham Baker.

In 1989, a TV series was spawned from the Baker original. It starred Gary Graham and Eric Pierpoint who reprized the original character roles. It was created by Kenneth Johnson.

The series only lasted one season, but it have enough of a fan following to have created five movies in the 90s.

Alien Nation TV Remake Attempt

This wasn’t the first time Alien Nation was announced for a remake. Back in 2009 American Horror Story writer and producer Tim Minear was announced to start working on an Alien Nation TV remake for the SyFy channel, according to Variety.

Minear is also known for his classic works with shows like The X-Files, Strange World, and Firefly.

However, it “died on the vine”, according to Giant Freakin Robot during the Sci-Fi to Syfy channel transition. The website said there seemed to have been a focus on wrestling and paranormal projects back then.

The Tracking Board further explained that even though fans were looking forward to this resurgence in an endearing franchise, it never got off the ground. Only the pilot was filmed and was cancelled prior to most of the season making it on the air.

The Fanfare For Alien Nation Still Burns?

The endearment still lived on back then considering its following as well as the addressing of cultural differences that exist in the real world. So it would seem as long as this issue exists, the constant revisits to this project does make sense and with a current trend in reboots or remakes, it’s time to strike while the iron is hot. The Tracking Board addresses this.

“Something about the concept remains so endearing that Fox is not willing to put the story to rest. I actually agree with their decision to continue pushing development on this story, because a modern day Alien Nation would not only look cool with our new graphics technology, but it would also teach inherent lessons about accepting different cultures (as the original film also tried to do).”

Back then, Alien Nation had a following so influential that there was an air of confidence that this project could be revisited in the future be it TV or the movie theaters. Considering this is timeless material, this would fit right into the mainstream of current world situations. Nichols’ Love flick seems to reinforce this.

Michael Shannon Alien Or Human Cop?

Man of Steel’s Michael Shannon has been mentioned by media outlets as a speculative potential for Alien Nation considering he’s been a frequent collaborator of Jeff Nichols.

Also, there does seem to be a trend in buddy cop movies and by throwing sci-fi into the mix with a race of aliens once again, it could get interesting.

There is no cast mentioned.

So do you think an Alien Nation movie is in order considering the recent bout of reboots? Who do you think Michael Shannon would play best? The alien or human cop?

[Photo by Lionel Cironneau/AP Images]

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